Scrivener and Why The Long Hiatus?
I only posted once in March. That's about the worst month since I got serious about blogging. The good news is that I've been writing or at least editing most of that time. For the last couple of months I've been trying to get a couple of novels ready to send off. I've been averaging about 5000 words edited per day pretty much every day so far this year. The edits are currently on a novel tentatively called Char. I wrote Char many years ago--close to ten. I've revised it a couple of times over the years as my writing skills improved. I'm about 80% done with this edit pass and Char is shaping up pretty well.
I'm doing the editing in Scrivener 2.0 on a Mac notebook. Both the Scrivener and the Mac are new to me. So far I like them both. The transition from Windows to Mac has been pretty easy so far. Sometimes I have to stop and look up how Mac does something, but generally the differences seem trivial, though I am using the Mac as though it was a Windows machine.
Scrivener is pretty good. It does some things better than YWriter, which has been my standard for plotting novels, but I haven't figured out how to do some of the plotting-type things I do in YWriter yet.
So what is Char about?
Char is the ultimate outsider: a brilliant 20-something young lady from a technologically primitive alternate reality. She ends up in our reality, and shortly thereafter ends up on the run as a murder suspect. She has to try to figure out how our society works while eluding police, coping with a tragic flaw and solving a mystery.
Here's a sample:
The dream felt solid. The night breeze felt right. The touch of Char’s bare feet on the ground, the brush of the leaves against her arms, the weight of her wooden spear; all felt right. The pain from the spear wound in her leg felt real, as did her hunger and exhaustion.
The forest felt wrong, though. Char recognized none of the familiar places of her forest. This forest felt empty compared to hers. She could hear or smell the small night creatures but Char sensed no creatures larger than the three men who followed her.
The men felt wrong, too. Three men, not of The Real People, therefore enemies. They were wrapped in skins from neck to foot in spite of the summer warmth. Moonlight bounced off their short, oddly shaped spears. Their eyes were covered by masks that let them follow her even when the moon went behind a cloud.
Not a dream. Too solid. Too much pain. Real. This is the place of death. You’re already dead. Why run? Why struggle? Char tried to push those thoughts away, but they grew stronger. Something else grew stronger too, a feeling. Char detected no sound or motion, but she was sure a fourth enemy lurked nearby, quieter than a night breeze.
Unlike the lurker, the other dream enemies walked boldly, noisily, as if the forest belonged to them so completely that nothing in it could challenge them. The way they walked angered Char but made her cautious. It implied power.
What powers did the dream enemies possess? How could they threaten her? She stopped and shut down most of her mind to concentrate on that problem. Her breathing slowed and the dream world faded to faint gray-on-gray shadows.
Dangerous how? What can they do? See in the dark? Yes, but not enough. Why no large animals? Hunted out. Even the most powerful of beasts? Yes, but that means incredible power. Where from? Spears? Can’t be for throwing or would carry more than one. Rarely miss? Shape wrong. Would not fly right.
Char shifted her attention back to the forest around her. Her legs and arms felt heavy after the focus, and she took a deep breath. Her enemies stopped and one of them dabbed at his arm, then pushed his mask up to the top of his head.
Char realized why her enemies stopped. She grinned. Go ahead. Find the trophy I hid in the tree above you, and know Char is a dangerous enemy. The enemies did not climb the tree. Instead they stood under it, far beyond spear range. The moon came out and Char got a better look at them. One of them seemed bigger than the others, huge and bulky. The big enemy raised his weapon. One of the others shouted and shoved the tip of the spear up. Char thought she saw something come out of the tip of the spear, moving faster than her eyes could track it. In the distance, Char heard a sound a like a spear being driven hard into a tree trunk.
In the moonlight Char gained ground on the dream enemies. She sensed another enemy in front of her when he broke a twig. Not the lurker. Clumsy like the others. Char moved at right angles to the ambush, but slowed when the moon slid back behind the clouds.
What did the enemy shout? Char replayed the sounds in her mind. “Never shoot unless you know what you’re shooting at.” Gibberish.
The moon stayed behind the clouds, and Char had to pick her way carefully. Abruptly she heard swift-running water. It seemed to come from three sides of her. Char moved forward and saw that she stood in the bend of a river wide enough she couldn’t see across it in the darkness, with the dream enemies behind her.
I'm doing the editing in Scrivener 2.0 on a Mac notebook. Both the Scrivener and the Mac are new to me. So far I like them both. The transition from Windows to Mac has been pretty easy so far. Sometimes I have to stop and look up how Mac does something, but generally the differences seem trivial, though I am using the Mac as though it was a Windows machine.
Scrivener is pretty good. It does some things better than YWriter, which has been my standard for plotting novels, but I haven't figured out how to do some of the plotting-type things I do in YWriter yet.
So what is Char about?
Char is the ultimate outsider: a brilliant 20-something young lady from a technologically primitive alternate reality. She ends up in our reality, and shortly thereafter ends up on the run as a murder suspect. She has to try to figure out how our society works while eluding police, coping with a tragic flaw and solving a mystery.
Here's a sample:
The dream felt solid. The night breeze felt right. The touch of Char’s bare feet on the ground, the brush of the leaves against her arms, the weight of her wooden spear; all felt right. The pain from the spear wound in her leg felt real, as did her hunger and exhaustion.
The forest felt wrong, though. Char recognized none of the familiar places of her forest. This forest felt empty compared to hers. She could hear or smell the small night creatures but Char sensed no creatures larger than the three men who followed her.
The men felt wrong, too. Three men, not of The Real People, therefore enemies. They were wrapped in skins from neck to foot in spite of the summer warmth. Moonlight bounced off their short, oddly shaped spears. Their eyes were covered by masks that let them follow her even when the moon went behind a cloud.
Not a dream. Too solid. Too much pain. Real. This is the place of death. You’re already dead. Why run? Why struggle? Char tried to push those thoughts away, but they grew stronger. Something else grew stronger too, a feeling. Char detected no sound or motion, but she was sure a fourth enemy lurked nearby, quieter than a night breeze.
Unlike the lurker, the other dream enemies walked boldly, noisily, as if the forest belonged to them so completely that nothing in it could challenge them. The way they walked angered Char but made her cautious. It implied power.
What powers did the dream enemies possess? How could they threaten her? She stopped and shut down most of her mind to concentrate on that problem. Her breathing slowed and the dream world faded to faint gray-on-gray shadows.
Dangerous how? What can they do? See in the dark? Yes, but not enough. Why no large animals? Hunted out. Even the most powerful of beasts? Yes, but that means incredible power. Where from? Spears? Can’t be for throwing or would carry more than one. Rarely miss? Shape wrong. Would not fly right.
Char shifted her attention back to the forest around her. Her legs and arms felt heavy after the focus, and she took a deep breath. Her enemies stopped and one of them dabbed at his arm, then pushed his mask up to the top of his head.
Char realized why her enemies stopped. She grinned. Go ahead. Find the trophy I hid in the tree above you, and know Char is a dangerous enemy. The enemies did not climb the tree. Instead they stood under it, far beyond spear range. The moon came out and Char got a better look at them. One of them seemed bigger than the others, huge and bulky. The big enemy raised his weapon. One of the others shouted and shoved the tip of the spear up. Char thought she saw something come out of the tip of the spear, moving faster than her eyes could track it. In the distance, Char heard a sound a like a spear being driven hard into a tree trunk.
In the moonlight Char gained ground on the dream enemies. She sensed another enemy in front of her when he broke a twig. Not the lurker. Clumsy like the others. Char moved at right angles to the ambush, but slowed when the moon slid back behind the clouds.
What did the enemy shout? Char replayed the sounds in her mind. “Never shoot unless you know what you’re shooting at.” Gibberish.
The moon stayed behind the clouds, and Char had to pick her way carefully. Abruptly she heard swift-running water. It seemed to come from three sides of her. Char moved forward and saw that she stood in the bend of a river wide enough she couldn’t see across it in the darkness, with the dream enemies behind her.